Bipolar charged aerosol agglomeration and collection by a two zone agglomerator

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Xiang, Xiao-dong | Chen, Bao-zhi | Colbeck, I.

Affiliations: School of Resource and Civil Engineering, Northeastem University, Shenyang 110006, China. E-mail: bzchen@ mail. neu. cn | Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK

Abstract: In older to collect fine particles more efficiently, a new-type electrostatic agglomerator with two sones was developed. The distinguishing feature of this electrostatic agglomerator is that the particles are bipolarly charged and coagulated in the same alternating electric field simultaneously. The silica flour with 2 µm mass median diameter and the smoke from burning wood powder were used as test aerosol. The comparison experimental results have shown that when the mean electric field is 4 kV/cm the collection efficiency of the new electrostatic agglomerator was 98.2% for silica flour and 67.4% for wood powder smoke. Under the same experimental condition, the collection efficiency of the electrostatic agglomerator with three zones was 97.4% for collecting silica flour and the collection efficiency of the electrostatic precipitator was 56.3% for wood powder smoke.

Keywords: charged particle agglomeration, alternating electric field, electrostatic agglomerator (EA), electrostatic precipitator (ESP), collection efficiency

Journal: Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 276-279, 2001